


there's a battle ahead (many battles are lost)

by Eirwyn



Series: Sky Pirate AU [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sky Pirates, Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, i think, spoilers for episode 40 onwards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 08:26:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11802234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirwyn/pseuds/Eirwyn
Summary: It's been a year since Percy joined up with the crew of the Little Sunbird, since he found a home after his was lost, and it's been the best year of his life.Of course, that's when the world decides to drag him back down with a reminder that bad things can happen to the most powerful of people, when four dragons attack Emon.





	there's a battle ahead (many battles are lost)

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, my brain is melting out of my ears. _Why_ did I think this was a good idea again?
> 
> This is essentially me playing hard and fast with canon as regards the Whitestone and Chroma Conclave arcs. Because I wanted to tell those stories, re-imagined in this universe where Vox Machina are a bunch of pirates, but I'm sort of picking up the bits I liked and leaving the bits I didn't, and what with them _not_ being adventurers, a lot of it is happening in a different order.
> 
> This is only part one, by the way. At the moment I imagine that there will be four parts, all at least as long as this one, because Lord knows I wasn't expecting this one to get as long as it did. And if there's a character you really want to see, but they haven't shown up yet, have patience! There has only ever been one character I truly hated in Critical Role, but all the rest will show up if I can work out a way to get them there.
> 
> This is going to be a long project, guys. Why do I hate myself?

Pike leaned against the rail of the airship and took a deep breath, unable to keep the smile of her face. There were some times, when it was cold, and wet, and they hadn’t had a decent job for months, that Pike regretted her decision to take to the skies in _Little Sunbird_ , but right now, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and they were nearing Emon in order to get paid for one job and hopefully take on another, if she had read the tone of the letter she had received correctly. Everything was right in the world.

It seemed that everyone else felt that way as well. Vax was piloting the ship, and Pike knew that they would make it to Emon in record time with Vax at the helm. It was the same way every time Pike announced that they were going back to Emon. He and Gilmore were adorably predictable at this point in their relationship, and Pike knew the minute that they landed, Vax would vanish until he was needed again. Every now and again, Pike would worry that she would lose Vax permanently to his boyfriend, but she knew she had a very good claim to his attention: Vex and her wanderlust.

Vex was up in the rigging, with Trinket sitting mournfully at the bottom and whining occasionally to get her attention. She was acting as lookout, both for potential trouble and for potential gain. Pike always preferred to have one of the half-elves on lookout, their eyes were better, and seeing as Vax was piloting, it was going to be either Vex or Keyleth, and Keyleth had cited work.

Grog and Scanlan were with each other, with Grog working out and using Scanlan as extra weight. Scanlan was perched on Grog’s back, holding his harmonica to his mouth and idly making music as Grog grunted with the strain of lifting both his own weight and Scanlan’s. It was a common enough sight that Pike knew after about half an hour, Grog would get bored and ask her to come over and add some more weight.

Keyleth was genuinely working on one of _Little Sunbird’s_ more legitimate ways of making money. She had her troughs of herbs out with her, and she was carefully pruning and packaging them up, with neat handwritten labels on the little bags. Normally, it would be something that Keyleth would do in the room she grew them in, but the weather was beautiful today, and Keyleth had clearly wanted to sit up on deck with everyone else. Cassandra was sitting next to Keyleth, watching her with absolute fascination, and helping out whenever gently prompted to. 

Not more than an arm’s length away from the girls was Percy, sitting with his tinkering gear spread out all around him, fiddling with the workings of one of his guns, with two others resting next to him, as well as some contraption that Pike couldn’t make heads or tails of, but that Percy was very proud of. A couple of Vex’s arrows were also mixed into the mess surrounding Percy. A few weeks ago, Percy had got it into his head that he could probably modify Vex’s arrows to do some interesting things, and Vex had been curious enough to let him have a go.

It had been about a year since Percy, Cassandra and Scanlan had paid for passage to Emon and then decided to stick around. Despite not exactly planning taking on three more crew members, Pike could easily admit to herself that it was nice, having the ship as full as it was. Percy, Cass and Scanlan had slotted into this makeshift family and now, Pike honestly couldn’t imagine waking up without them. Percy and Cass did make things a bit more complicated when deciding where to port, but then what was life without added complication? If it wasn’t them, it would have been something else. 

Pike tipped her face back up to the sun, and sighed another deep, satisfied sigh. Yeah, life was pretty good right about now.

Which, of course, was when everything went wrong.

With everyone busy doing their own thing, nobody was paying attention to Vex up in the rigging, which meant nobody saw her go suddenly stiff and stand up, one hand going to shade her eyes as she squinted against the sun, awareness telling her something she was trying to corroborate with her senses. However, everyone was jolted into paying attention when Vex’s voice cut through the relaxed atmosphere, voice pitched high with fear and urgency, shouting as loudly as she could, “Dragons!!”

Pike had maybe two seconds to be proud about how everyone swung into action like they somehow had a _plan_ for encountering _dragons_ , before sheer panic took over and she began shouting orders, “Grog, get Cass and Scanlan back downstairs! Percy, get your big gun and get ready to defend - we’re not engaging unless we have to! Keyleth, tell Vax to drop altitude as quickly as he can, we need to get out of the way!”

Pike darted over to where Trinket was now pacing back and forth, having clearly sensed the change in mood and shouted up to Vex, “Vex, what’s going on? What can you see?”

“Three dragons, fully grown! Black, white and green, the green one’s peeled off a bit from the others, but all three are heading straight for us!”

“Have they seen us?”

Vex laughed a bit hysterically, “I don’t think so, given that we’re not being mobbed right now, but they will, there’s no cloud cover!”

“Keyleth could….”

“There’s no way of making that look natural; dragons aren’t stupid, even the white one would know that a druid caused that!”

As the shouted conversation continued, Percy got back on deck, and began to set up a formidable-looking weapon with quick, precise movements, and the ship suddenly began to dip, in a hasty, but controlled descent. Percy still swore a little as some of his gun parts began to roll away from him, and he had to make a hasty grab for them. Pike put one hand on Trinket and an arm around the mast to steady herself, and was about to shout back up to Vex when Keyleth and Scanlan appeared back on deck, looking both terrified and determined.

“What are you two doing? On deck’s not safe right now!”

Keyleth hesitated, but stood her ground and started to reply, “Captain, we, I mean, Scanlan came up with it but I’m going to…,” before Scanlan interrupted her, voice uncharacteristically serious, and said, “We’ve got a plan, Pike. Get Vex down from there and then we’re going to need your help.”

Pike didn’t have time to question them on it, and she trusted her crew. She shouted for Vex to get down and help her brother on the bridge, before joining Keyleth and Scanlan where they had set themselves up next to Percy and asking, “What can I do?”

“You’ll be the last to cast,” Scanlan replied, “because after you do, no-one else will be able to. You can do _Silence_ , right?”

Pike nodded, and Scanlan grinned, sudden and manic. “Great, but me first. Stand still, and don’t move. I need to concentrate.”

Pike did as she was told, and watched as Scanlan began to hum and move his hands, before the humming blossomed into a full blown song, and Scanlan threw his hands out, song ending on a long, low note and Pike suddenly couldn’t see herself, or her friends, or the ship around her. She could look down and see straight through to the sea, and the sight, for the first time, made her dizzy.

“All right Keyleth, you’re up.”

Pike looked back over at Scanlan, or at least, where Scanlan’s voice had come from, now sounding a lot more confident, but also a lot more strained. Keyleth didn’t say anything for a few beats, before suddenly replying, “Yes, sorry, I forgot you couldn’t see me.”

Pike heard low murmuring, before Keyleth sighed and went. “Perfect.”

Off to the side, but with the ship quickly moving so that they were directly ahead, Pike could now see angry-looking dark clouds. Even for complete amateurs, it would be obvious that no airship would head for what were clearly storm clouds, and potentially dangerous ones at that.

“Keyleth, why are we heading for what looks like an absolutely horrendous storm?”

“We told Vax to lock the course in before he couldn’t see the controls of the ship. Even dragons aren’t going to want to fly through a storm. Which, by the way, is an illusion. It’s not real. Your turn, Captain.”

“A _Silence_ spell?”

“So the dragons can’t hear us either. Centre it on the engines, because people can just stay quiet if it doesn’t reach us.”

Pike’s fingers went to her holy symbol unerringly, despite not being able to see herself, and began the incantation, feeling the familiar wash of power run through her. It never failed to be a soothing feeling, and right now, Pike needed soothing. She released the spell, and everything around her went silent.

The next ten minutes were the most nerve-wracking of Pike’s entire life, and that included the time that she thought that Grog’s herd were going to hunt them both down and kill them just because Grog hadn’t died when he was meant to and she was the reason why. She watched as the dragons did veer away from the storm clouds, changing their course enough so that they would miss the ship entirely. They did come scarily near by, and Pike came far closer to a dragon than she ever thought she would be.

The black and white ones looked exactly how Pike had imagined dragons to look like, fierce and cruel and utterly enormous, but the green one was smaller than she thought it would be, and seemed to have something wrong with, some disease growing on its scales. They flew past, and Pike turned on the spot to watch them disappear off towards the horizon. As they quickly turned into dots behind _Little Sunbird_ , Pike felt her spell dissipate.

It was quickly followed by her body shimmering back into view, along with her friends and her ship. Pike turned around and saw Keyleth, Percy and Scanlan. Percy was staring at Scanlan with quite a bit of shock on his face, and Keyleth just looked proud. Scanlan himself had the biggest smirk on his face, but Pike could see the sweat beading on his forehead and sliding down his temples. That spell had taken a lot out of him.

“Well,” said Percy, beginning to dismantle his gun, “That was… not fun. Thank the gods for Vex, I hate to imagine what would have happened if we had no warning of that. Still, a pity I didn’t get to try this thing out.”

Pike laughed a little, “Next time, Percy. Next time I’ll let you shoot a dragon.”

Leaving Percy to clean up and Keyleth to take over keeping an eye out for anything _else_ as she maintained her illusory storm clouds, Pike made her way down to the bridge so she could tell Vax that it was safe to get them back on course. He had probably already worked that out from the ship reappearing around him, but it never hurt to check.

When she got there, Vax was indeed already getting the ship back on course, but the rest of the tableau that Pike walked in on was not what she expected at all. Vex was there, sitting in the copilot’s chair that was hardly ever used, and Vax had only one hand on the wheel; his other was being held by both of Vex’s. Both of their expressions were… well, if Pike really had to put a word to the sad solemnity with which they both held themselves, it would be grief.

“Guys… what’s wrong?”

There was a stretch of silence following her question, lasting about a minute before Vex answered, her eyes never leaving her brother’s face, “The dragons came from Emon.” 

“ _What?_ ”

Vex turned her face to look at Pike, her face just a mask of forced calm. “They came from Emon. I’ve been thinking about it, and there’s no way to take into account their flight path and not have it take them straight over Emon.”

That explained the twins’ clasped hands. Of all of them that stood to lose something if Emon had been attacked, Vax had the most to lose, and it must have been so painful for Vex to have to be the one to tell him.

“Emon’s a well-defended city though,” Pike said, but even she could hear how desperate she sounded, “They’re fortified, and why would dragons attack Emon, anyway?”

“I don’t want to think about it either, Pike,” Vex replied, her voice starting to crack, “but I have to. Emon’s fortified, that’s true, but against human armies coming from the ground, not _three chromatic dragons_. And I’ve never heard of chromatic dragons working together within their own colour, let alone different colours!”

“That doesn’t mean they attacked Emon. Their target could have been something else.”

Vex nodded, “That’s true, but the black dragon is the cruelest of them all, the white dragon is the most feral of them all, and the green dragon just likes to attack for no reason. That combination, flying over a city as tempting as Emon?”

She didn’t have to finish the sentence, Pike caught the implication evident in the parts Vex didn’t say. Pike looked over at Vax, who was still looking ahead, apparently not listening to the conversation at all even though Pike knew he had taken it all in. His hand hadn’t moved from where Vex was holding it, but Pike could see from the tension in his arm that he must have been gripping onto Vex very tightly.

“Vax….”

“I know, Pike. I’m getting us there.”

“That’s not what I was going to say, Stringbean.”

Vax took a deep breath, “I know, but that’s all I can do right now.”

“Okay,” Pike nodded, and turned to leave, but Vax’s voice stopped her as he asked. “Hey, Pickle? Do you… need Vex right now?”

Pike smiled sympathetically and immediately shook her head. “No, Keyleth’s on lookout, maintaining her illusory storm clouds. Vex, you can stay right here.”

****

It was about a hour later that Keyleth came below deck to find Pike and say quietly, “There's smoke rising up from where Emon is.”

Pike closed her eyes, and took a few breaths, in through the nose and out through her mouth, before standing and saying, “Get everyone together at the dinner table. We need to have a meeting.”

Once everyone had gathered, Pike stood at the head of the table and said, “It's been confirmed that Emon’s been attacked by dragons. It's not pretty. From what Keyleth can see, Emon’s been devastated by fire, and there’s still a dragon down there. There's no docking stations left, so the ship has to stay in the air, but there’s people down there who we need to find.”

Everyone very carefully did not look at Vax, who was tossing a dagger up and down, his face cold and determined.

“So,” Pike continued, “I was thinking that Vex and Percy would stay behind: Vex to pilot the ship, and Percy to have a bit more fun with his gun, making sure that nobody tries to get onboard that we don’t want. Then, anyone who wants to come down into Emon can come down.”

It didn’t really surprise Pike that everyone else wanted to go to Emon. Vex manoeuvered the ship down carefully, doing her best not to attract attention. Pike got Grog to throw the ladder down and descend first, concerned that if she let Vax go first, he would dart off without any thought to his own safety. Of course, there was nothing she could do about him climbing down second, apart from hoping that if he did make a run for it, Grog would have the sense to follow him.

In the end, there were six of them. Grog was up front with Scanlan and Cassandra, trying to clear a path through people rioting in the streets, desperately trying to get to their families or get out of the city, or the occasional few trying to make a profit as the shops and taverns got abandoned. Those people got taken care of, most of the time by Cassandra, who was a dab hand with a rapier and quicker than either Grog or Scanlan, and a lot less likely to be lethal than Grog.

Vax was next, one dagger out in order to defend himself, but fighting looters obviously wasn’t his main priority, as he was darting from body to body left on the streets, each time his face going blank as he rolled them over, and then the relief he couldn’t possibly hide when each time the body wasn’t Gilmore. He was also looking at as many faces as he possibly could as people rushed past them, presumably looking either for Gilmore, or someone who may know what might have happened.

Pike and Keyleth were last, and both of them were trying to heal as many people as possible, whilst still keeping enough back so that, should they come across someone who was very badly injured, they’d be able to do something. Pike didn’t know about Keyleth, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she was thinking about Gilmore, and what state he might be in.

Even though Grog, Scanlan and Cassandra were in front, they were technically all following Vax, who knew his way around the best, and was the person who spent the most time in and around Gilmore’s shop. However, all of them knew the area, so it became increasingly obvious as they got nearer to the site of Gilmore’s Glorious Goods, that this part of Emon had been hit very hard. Eventually, they got to where the building should stand, and looked on what was just rubble, stone and timber piled up in places where there should be homes and shops. It was a heartbreaking sight.

Pike came forward, and slipped her hand into Vax’s, who had stopped dead right where the entrance to the shop would normally be, “Vax, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Vax whispered, “He’s put a lot into this place, and it has so many memories for both of us, but none of that matters as long he’s still around to put it back together. Come on, there’s one more place we need to check.”

Pike frowned, but followed Vax as he picked his way through the rubble, making his way towards where the back of where the shop would have been, before crouching down and tapping at the rubble, “Here, Grog, can you move this pile?”

Grog looked at him like Vax had insulted him, and flexed his muscles as he walked over, before he tipped up the rocks covering the floor with one hand, the whole time keeping eye contact with Vax. Vax rolled his eyes and said, “Okay, okay, sorry big guy, now help me get the trapdoor open.”

“Trapdoor!” Four voices echoed, Pike among them, but sure enough, there was a trapdoor set into the floor. When the shop had been standing it must have been hidden under some furniture or behind a curtain, because Pike had never once seen it in the whole time they had known and been dealing with Gilmore, and while it didn’t surprise her to know that Vax knew where it was, she was a little surprised he had never mentioned it.

Grog got the trapdoor open, and Vax jumped down without any hesitation, calling out as he did, “Shaun! Shaun, are you here? Shaun!”

He darted off ahead, clearly not concerned with anything else, and not expecting any resistance, relying on his half-elven sight to see down the dark tunnel. Pike rolled her eyes and followed him, knowing that others were jumping down behind her. The tunnel didn’t go on for very long, maybe ten or fifteen feet, before opening out onto a roughly hewn cavern, with a few torches set into holders attached to the wall.

Pike could see Vax ahead of her, silhouetted against the light, when suddenly a slim female figure appeared and swung what looked like a table leg at Vax’s head. Vax, with all his rogue agility, easily ducked it and made swing back with one of his daggers, but before he could complete his swing, all the strength went out of his arms, and he dropped the weapon. 

“Sherri?”

“Vax’ildan?”

Pike got close enough now to see that the ‘Sherri’ Vax was now holding by the shoulders was a half-elven woman, not more than thirty, wearing the distinctive robes of a magic user, and more than that, an employee of Gilmore. The normally beautiful blue and purple robes were dirty and torn, but no sign of blood. 

As the others now joined them, Vax asked urgently, “Sherri, where’s Gilmore, why isn’t he here?”

“You haven’t seen him?”

“No, we only just got here, what happened?”

Sherri took a shaky breath, trembling in Vax’s hands even as she tried to control herself, “Gilmore went out this morning, to an announcement by the Sovereign in the Cloudtop district. It was a public announcement, lots of people were going, and he told me to watch the shop and he’d be back soon.”

“And?”

“He was gone for about half an hour, before I heard a massive smashing sound, like a building being torn apart. I put my head out of the door and looked towards the Cloudtop district. The tower, you know, the white one, was gone.That was when the screaming started. I went back inside and tried to keep people in, but a lot of people bolted, and then the shop got brought down around us, hence….”

Sherri gestured to her ripped and dirty robes and continued, “Gilmore came back after about another half an hour, looking as tired as I’ve ever seen him, with them,” she gestured over her shoulder, “ He brought us down here, told us to stay put and that he was going to back out to see if he could help. I haven’t seen him since.”

Pike made her way past them, and looked at the four figures sitting on the floor. Her eyes widened as she recognised who it was Gilmore had brought here. The wife of the Sovereign and their three children. They all looked whole and healthy, if scared, but Pike wanted to check and so she approached, using her best manners.

“My lady, my name is Pike, I’m a healer, along with one of my crew. Can I check you and your family over for wounds?”

The lady smiled gently, but there were lines on her face that were aging her prematurely, and she held her youngest, a boy of not more than eight, close to her, her grip firm and clearly not likely to ease up anytime soon. “I am unharmed, Mistress Pike, and believe my children are as well, though you are welcome to check. Children?”

The three of them, two girls and the little boy, all shook their heads, but the eldest girl spoke up, “Is the man who brought us here back?”

“Gilmore? No, not yet. We’re here to find him, he’s our friend.”

The girl nodded, her face solemn. She wasn’t more than fourteen, ash and dust streaked across her forehead, “He saved our lives. He couldn’t save Father, but he saved the rest of us, and I want to thank him. So will you find him?”

Pike looked up at her, this little girl with adult eyes, and found herself making a promise she wasn’t sure she could keep, “I promise, my lady, I will find him.”

The girl nodded, and sat down again, next to her sister who curled back into her side. Pike looked at the Sovereign’s wife and asked, “Your husband, is he…? Your daughter said that….”

She nodded, her face kept as still as possible, presumably in order to not upset her children by seeing her upset, “I don’t believe he made it, but we’re alive, thanks to that man. You’re his friend, you said?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Then I hope you find him, Mistress Pike. There has been quite enough death today.”

Pike nodded her acknowledgement and turned around, only to see Vax, Grog and Keyleth engaged in what looked like the world’s strangest dance. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Pike strode over and half-shouted, “ _What_ is going on here?”

“Grog won’t let me get past!” Vax replied, frustration sending his voice low and gritty, “And Keyleth’s helping him!”

“You’re a squishy little half-elf, and if you go out there you’ll die.” Grog stated simply, and Keyleth chimed in after him, saying, “You can’t go out there, Vax, not by yourself. Gilmore….”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence, as with a wordless snarl, Vax redoubled his efforts to get past Grog. Pike sighed, knowing, and more than that, understanding that with the state Vax was in, there was no way of simply talking to him. She glanced up at Grog, who met her eyes, and a wordless conversation passed between them, which ended with Grog simply shifting his stance and scooping Vax up into a bear hug, ensuring his arms were pinned to his side.

She waited for Vax to finish fighting it, which took less time than she thought; even out of his mind with worry, Vax knew there was no way he was escaping a Grog grapple. Once he had stopped struggling, Pike went up to him and got his attention by placing a hand on his knee, the only part of him she could really reach. He looked down at her, and for the first time, Pike could really see on his face exactly how frightened Vax was.

“Vax, they’re right. You can’t go out there alone. Gilmore’s a very capable man, and do you think he’d ever forgive us for letting you put yourself in danger on his behalf? You know he doesn’t want that.”

“What if he’s….”

“I know, but we’ve got to give him time. Gilmore went back out there for a reason. We’ll stay put for another hour, and if he’s not back in that time, we’ll _all_ go looking for him. Okay?”

For a few moments, Pike thought that Vax was going to carry on fighting, but finally, he nodded.

****

Pike wasn’t sure if it had been a hour yet; there was no way of telling the time in this underground cavern, but Vax was starting to get twitchy where he was sitting at the mouth of the cavern, so Pike guessed that if she didn’t start making a move soon, Vax would decide for her.

She had just climbed to her feet and opened her mouth to start talking, when there was a thump, which came from down the tunnel, followed by the sound of footsteps, two sets of them, but one of them wasn’t a regular pattern, as if the person was dragging their feet. The footsteps were coming towards them, and without communicating, all of the crew spread out around the tunnel entrance, with Sherri shifting backwards to protect the Tal’doreis, her wand out.

The tension racked higher and higher as the footsteps got closer and closer, and Pike was just preparing to release a spell when the figures in question rounded the curve of the tunnel and, thanks to her gnomish darkvision, became immediately recognisable.

As Pike shouted out, “Hold your fire!” Vax also simultaneously shouted, “Shaun!” and darted forward, completely blind to anything other than the slumped form of Gilmore, being mostly held up by a slim human woman in dark blue robes, blonde hair pulled into braids that hung down past her shoulders. 

The woman easily surrendered Gilmore into Vax’s arms and Pike rushed forward to look at Gilmore’s injuries, and even though she had seen some horrendous things, the extent of damage that had been done to Gilmore’s chest and stomach was awful, like he had been raked over and over again with claws and teeth. Vax had lowered him to the floor and had Gilmore’s head in his lap, stroking his hair even as he looked at Pike, his expression pleading.

Pike kneeled down and laid her hands over the nastiest wound, a slash ripping open Gilmore’s stomach right across, from right to left as she warned, “I haven’t got much left. I can heal the internal damage, but you’ll have to help me bandage him up until I can get a chance to rest.”

Vax nodded and Pike released the magic into Gilmore’s body and watched anxiously as the bleeding began to slow, even though there was no obvious sealing up of the wounds. As Pike began pulling out bandages from her healing kit, Gilmore’s eyes fluttered open and immediately locked on Vax’s face. He smiled a little as he whispered, “Vax.”

Vax smiled back shakily as he pressed a kiss to Gilmore’s forehead and replied softly, “Welcome back. Can you sit up? We need to bandage you.”

With Vax’s arm around his shoulders, Gilmore managed to sit up and Pike quickly bandaged him up and then got him to his feet. She looked at him critically, before beckoning Grog over and saying, “Grog, we’re going to be making a run for it soon. I need you to carry Gilmore, he won’t be able to move quickly enough.”

Grog looked at Gilmore and Gilmore shrugged, “It’s as embarrassing for me as it is for you, my friend, so we may as well get on with it.”

Pike clapped her hands a couple of times to get everyone’s attention and said, as loudly as she dared, “Right, everyone, we’re going to move now. We need to get back to our ship, and of course, everyone here is welcome to come aboard, unless they have other plans. Heads down, if you’ve got weapons, keep them close. We don’t stop for anything, understood?”

There was nodding of all the heads present, and Pike smiled. “Good. All the civilians on the inside, the rest of us surrounding. Grog, remember to be careful, you can’t hit back whilst you’ve got Gilmore.”

Grog nodded seriously, and they began to move out of the cavern, with Keyleth using her grasping vines to lift the children out of the trapdoor and back out onto the street. The street itself was still full of people frantically trying to find somewhere, anywhere, that might be safe, but there were a lot more looters on the street now, and unfortunately, what with the royal family and the lady that had brought Gilmore dressed so nicely, they were attracting a lot of attention. Pike gripped her mace tightly and hissed between her teeth, “Everybody move, quickly now, northwest towards the water. Go!”

They moved quickly, and as the children stumbled, Vax scooped up the little boy, and Cass grabbed the younger of the two girls and kept her going, her hand an iron grip around the girl’s wrist. As they moved, getting closer to the water, they came across a group of people that were fighting a gang of looters, defending what looked like an elderly halfling and a human woman. Keyleth threw out a spell, and nearly stumbled as it left her, but it had the desired effect of scattering the looters.

The group of fighters looked surprised and dazed, but Pike just shouted out, “Come on, move if you want to be safe!”

They followed, along with the two people they had been defending, and as they made it to the airship, there was a thunderous roar coming from where they had just run from. The blonde woman who had brought Gilmore blanched and called, “That’s the dragon, quickly, we must hurry!”

“Vax!” Pike shouted, “Get up there and help your sister pilot, now, I mean it!”

Vax glanced back at Gilmore, still being held by Grog, his face a picture of indecision, before shifting the boy around to cling to his back and scurrying up the ladder, shouting back down as he did so, “Get the rest of the family up, use Kiki’s vines!”

Pike started pushing people to get up the ladder, at the same time, Keyleth summoned her vines and began to lift people up onto the ship. The roaring continued, and Pike was sure she could hear _something_ advancing on their position, but didn’t dare look around to check, not wanting to break her rhythm. Finally, both she and Keyleth climbed onto the ladder and Pike yelled as loudly as she could, “We’re on board, get us out of here!”

The ship lurched into life, rising so quickly through the air that all Pike and Keyleth could do was hold tightly onto the ladder as it was pulled up by Grog and one of the men they had grabbed along the way. When they finally made their way over the railing and onto the deck, the girls just collapsed to the wooden floor and just went limp, curled into each other. All around the deck, there were just people crumpled on the floor, motionless with pain and relief and fear. Nobody said anything for at least a few minutes, before Pike raised her head from where she had buried it into Keyleth’s arm and sighed. Someone had to take charge again, and it was her ship. No time to rest.

She stood up, stretching her hands above her head, feeling her back pop before she began calling out orders. “Right, Keyleth, stay here, and once we’re into open sky, get us some tailwind. Have you got enough power left to do that?”

Keyleth looked up at her from where she was still sprawled on the floor, and pushed her long red hair out of her face as she replied, “Sure, I can do that. Are we heading anywhere in particular?”

“Vasselheim,” replied a voice to the left of Pike. Glancing over, Pike saw that it was the blonde woman who had brought Gilmore back, now looking a lot more collected than she had done whilst they were fleeing through the city. Her robes were still dirty, and her hair was still in disarray, but there was something in how she was holding herself now, that made her seem a lot more powerful, and a lot more important.

Regardless of that, however, Pike was not having a complete stranger giving orders on her ship, and didn’t hesitate to say so. “Excuse me? I don’t care who you were in Emon, you’re on _my_ ship now, and total strangers _do not_ give orders on _my ship_. Who are you, anyway?”

“My name is Arcanist Allura Vysoren, formerly of the Emon Council,” The woman replied, her tone even but determined, “And I’m the one who sent you the letter telling you of a job that some powerful people wanted done in Emon. That was me, and I do indeed have a job for you.”

Pike watched her steadily. This woman - Allura - appeared to be genuine about her statement, and the letter itself certainly lent truth to the statement. Pike had already concluded that whoever sent the letter was in some sort of powerful position, at the very least nobility or a storied position in government. Allura was definitely one of those and maybe the other, but still, her priorities seemed to be a bit out of order.

“Not be rude,” Scanlan interrupted, in the tone of voice that meant he definitely meant to be rude, “But your city just got levelled by dragons. Whatever job you had for us, it’s dust now, so I, personally, really don’t see why that’s relevant.”

Allura glanced between Pike and Scanlan, looking almost like she was expecting Pike to reprimand Scanlan for speaking out of turn or something, but when Pike said nothing, Allura replied, “It’s true that the original job I was going to hire you for is now no longer necessary, but as you pointed out, uh, Sir Gnome, there is now a more pressing job. I want to hire you to help rid the world of these dragons, and to free Emon.”

****

There was a few beats of silence, before Pike held up her hand, shaking her head as she said, “So, I’ll come back to that statement, but for now, let’s just go with I’m refusing the job offer on the grounds that it’s _crazy_ , and I have people to look after.”

Allura clearly wanted to say some more, but Pike turned her back, and walked over to where Cass and Percy were leaning together, and whispered, “While these people are aboard, your names are Freddie and Hanna Miller, from Wildemount. I’ll tell the others, and I’ll tell Grog twice, to make it stick,” Then louder, she said, “You two help get these people to the guest quarters.”

She turned and called, “Grog, take Gilmore to Vax’s quarters, and I’ll go and relieve him. They’re going to want to spend some time together. Scanlan, make a quick run over the ship, make sure nothing’s been broken and everything’s in the right place, then put together something for us all to eat. It’s been a long few hours for everybody.”

The whole crowd of people on deck began to shuffle down towards the living quarters, groups leaning on each other for support and comfort. Pike followed them down, and made her way to the bridge, where Vax and Vex both had their hands on the controls of the ship, identical expressions of concentration on their already identical faces. Pike went over to Vax and tapped his shoulder, waiting for him to tear his eyes away from the skyline before smiling and saying, “Go see Gilmore, Vax. Grog took him to your quarters; he’s waiting for you.”

Vax jumped out of his seat and grinned, hugging Pike tightly, “Thank you, Pickle!”

“You’re welcome,” Pike replied, “Oh, wait, Vax, while we’ve got guests, Percy and Cass are Freddie and Hanna. Just to be safe.”

Vax nodded, and vanished. Pike settled herself into his seat, adjusting it so it was easier for her to be comfortable and glanced over at Vex. “How are you doing, Vex? Need a break?”

“No, I’m all right,” Vex replied, her gaze not shifting away from the sky, “Though Cass, I mean, Hanna, is turning out to be quite a pilot. She still needs supervision, though, so she can switch out with me so long as you’re all right to stay on.”

“Good idea.”

There was silence for a few minutes, before Vex said quietly, “Thank you, Pike.”

“For what?”

“For what you just did.”

Pike smiled a little, “That’s okay. If only we were all so lucky, to be loved so much.”

There was a sudden jolt, and Pike made another grab for the controls, “Well, that’s Keyleth getting the wind behind us. Do you reckon Kymal’s safe, Vex?”

“From dragons, or in general? Yes to the first, no to the second,” Vex snorted at her own joke before saying, “Honestly though, I don’t see what they’d want with Kymal. Emon at least made sense, in some twisted way.”

“Kymal it is then.”

It took about half an hour to get their course locked in, and then Pike and Vex left to go to get something to eat. In the eating area, there were two or three of the group that had been fighting, Allura, and Keyleth and Percy. The two of them got food and sat down, not expecting much conversation, but it wasn’t long before one of the group of fighters from earlier, a human man not more than twenty-five, dark-skinned like Gilmore, but considerably more rugged, reached over and held out a hand, saying, “Jarett Howarth, at your service. Thank you for your help earlier.”

Pike took the hand and shook it, “Pike, Captain of the _Little Sunbird_. This is one of my pilots, Vex’ahlia.”

Jarett grinned, white teeth in a beautiful smile, and held out his hand again, “A honour to meet you. You are a very fine pilot.”

Vex took it, clearly charmed even if she was pretending otherwise, “And you’re a flatterer.”

Jarett grinned again, his hand holding on, but before he could reply, his companion, a red haired human woman leaned over and said, “Jarett’s always got a good eye for a pretty woman, Captain Pike, you’d better watch him around your crew.”

Jarett laughed, releasing Vex’s hand to rub a hand over his head and through his close-cropped hair. “This is my companion and friend, Shayne Tranter, and over there, stuffing his face with your delicious food, is Cordell.” 

A half-orc raised a hand, but didn’t say anything, continuing to, as Jarett put it ‘stuff his face’. Jarett continued, “I don’t know anything about the others that you brought on board, just that the two that were fighting with us were good.”

Pike drained her bowl and nodded, “Well, that’s good. I feel like more people are going to need to be good at fighting, these days.”

“You could help them,” Allura added quietly from where she was sitting on her own, absent-mindedly tapping her spoon against her bowl, “You all could.”

“It’s not later yet, Arcanist,” Pike said simply.

“Very well,” Allura replied, “But again, I would like to request that we head to Vasselheim. It’s far enough away that the royal family would be safe, and there is someone there I must meet with urgently. I assume it’s a place you’ve been to before?”

“It’s a run we’re familiar with,” Pike agreed, “You’re not wrong about Vasselheim. It’s as good a place as any for us to lay low in, and if there’s someone there for you, so much the better. You have a deal, Arcanist Vysoren.”

“Thank you,” Allura nodded, “If I could borrow your raven to send a message ahead, I would be very grateful. And my name is Allura.”

Pike nodded her acknowledgement to both the unspoken and spoken requests, and left the eating area, heading to the guest quarters to check in with everyone else they had taken on board before heading back to her own quarters and falling into her bed, asleep within minutes. When she woke up, at least six hours later, Pike felt a lot more refreshed, and more importantly, her power had returned. With that in mind, Pike quickly dressed and headed down the hallway to where Vax’s room was.

She tapped on the door, but when she got no response, carefully opened the door and poked her head around. Gilmore and Vax were both fast asleep, with Gilmore flat on his back so his wounds wouldn’t be aggravated, wedged between the wall of the room, and Vax, who was perched precariously on the edge of the narrow bunk and curled into Gilmore’s side, his head on Gilmore’s shoulder and one arm carefully draped over Gilmore’s waist. They made such a lovely picture that Pike was loath to wake them, but she needed them both conscious when she healed Gilmore again.

Pike stepped into the room, and she could tell that Vax was tired because he didn’t so much as stir at the sound of her footstep, whereas as normally that would be enough to have him awake in an instant. She put a hand on Vax’s shoulder, and felt him tense under her hand, before his eyes opened to see her, and he relaxed again.

“Hello, Pickle.”

“Hey, Stringbean. All that worry wear you out?”

“I suppose it must have. You look like you caught some sleep. Come to check on Shaun?” 

Pike nodded, “I’ll check for infection, and then finish healing him.”

Vax propped himself up on one elbow and replied, “That’s great, I’ll just wake him.”

Vax leaned over and began to gently stroke Gilmore’s hair with his free hand, along with peppering Gilmore’s face with gentle little kisses. It was adorable, and also so painfully intimate that Pike found herself finding an excuse to look away, pretending to look through the bag she had brought with her as if she didn’t know what was already in it. 

She purposely kept her eyes averted until Gilmore murmured, his voice hoarse, “Good morning, Captain.”

Pike met his eyes and smiled, “Good morning, Gilmore. How are you feeling?”

“A little less like a dragon made mincemeat out of me. I assume I have you to thank for that?”

Pike shrugged, “I did the healing, but you never would have made to us if it wasn’t for the Arcanist. She must have dragged you quite a distance.”

“Oh, Allura?” Gilmore asked, as he was helped to sit more upright by Vax, “Yes, I vaguely remember that journey. I’d gone back to look for her, since I’d seen one of the dragons go straight for her tower and I thought she was a deliberate target. The red dragon saw me, and, well….”

He went silent, gesturing down at his bandaged torso. Vax perched next to him and took his hand as he said, “As much as it’s strange to have her on board, given that she wants to hire us and Pike turned her down flat, I’m so grateful to her for bringing you back.”

Gilmore raised his eyebrows, “Well, I don’t know what she wants you to do, but I’ve known Allura essentially since I came to Emon. She’s a good person and an insanely talented Arcanist, as well as an adventurer in her youth. She wouldn’t be setting you up for anything deliberately.”

Pike laughed as she carefully sliced through the bandages, “I’m sure you’re right, Gilmore, but personally, I would be more worried about how you’re going to explain to her why you’ve been in league with criminals long enough to be dating one of them.”

Gilmore’s face, already tense from the pain of Pike’s touch, suddenly went almost comically wide, and Vax and Pike, being the wonderfully supportive lover and friend that they were respectively, burst into laughter. Pike was still giggling a little as she laid her hands on the wounds and called for her power, feeling Sarenrae’s divine light fill her and pass through her as she sent healing magic into Gilmore’s body, watching with delight as the wounds began close under her touch.

After a few minutes, Pike raised her hands again, and smiled down at her work. There was now no sign Gilmore had ever been injured apart from the slight dark scars where the worst wounds had been. Gilmore gingerly laid a hand on his own chest and grinned when he felt the whole skin. Vax’s hand joined Gilmore’s and Pike thought it would be prudent to interrupt them before hands ended up anywhere else.

“Here, you’ll need to take this,” She held out a glass vial filled with a dark green liquid, “just in case any infection sent in before I could close the wounds. Keyleth mixed it up, but it is truly disgusting, so you might want to mix it with food. Are you hungry?”

Gilmore swung his legs off the bed and stood up, stretching his arms above his head, before nodding, “I’m going to freshen up before I face the rest of the crew - I do have a reputation to maintain, after all - but then we’ll see you there.”

Pike left the room, silently betting to herself that Vax and Gilmore would be at least half an hour, and not because Gilmore took that long to get cleaned up. She had seen Vax’s face when he had seen Gilmore fully healed, and that was a look that wouldn’t brook being ignored. Pike popped back to her room to drop her bag off, before heading for the eating area, expecting it to be fairly empty.

She wasn’t completely wrong. The only outsider present was Allura, looking a lot fresher than she had been six hours earlier, but everyone else was a crew member. There was no Percy or Cass, but as Pike slipped into a seat next to Vex and posed that question using their cover names, Vex replied, “Both on the bridge. Hanna’s watching the controls, and Freddie’s keeping her company. Hanna needs to go off shift soon though, so my brother better be ready to be a pilot again, instead of a worried lover.”

Pike smiled, knowing that despite Vex’s seemingly casual cruel words, she would never drag Vax back until he was ready, “I just finished healing Gilmore, so they’ll be here sooner or later. Gilmore’s got to take one of Keyleth’s concoctions.”

Vex pulled her face, memory of taking one of those before curling her tongue, and she quickly took a mouthful of food and swallowed, before saying, “They’ve got to get their fill of each other first.”

“Why do you think I hightailed it out of there?”

The girls giggled together companionably, hands holding cups and heads leaning together, and only laughed harder when Gilmore and Vax showed up, both of their faces flushed pink and lips swollen. Gilmore did look more himself, hair pulled back and goatee neatly styled, his clothes changed. Pike looked closer, and realised that whilst Gilmore was in a pair of Vax’s trousers, clearly magically altered to fit him, the shirt he was wearing, purple and gold with a deep neckline, was definitely one of his own. 

Pike leaned over to whisper this to Vex, who whispered back, “It _is_ one of his. I saw them switch shirts when I went to get Vax once. I guess it must be a thing, for them to keep a shirt of each others when they’re apart.”

“That’s adorable. And nauseating.”

“I know!”

The conversation stopped as Vax and Gilmore joined the table with plates of food and drinks for both of them. Gilmore tipped his vial into the drink and swallowed it down in one gulp, and immediately took a mouthful of food, clearly having the same reaction to the taste as everyone else. 

After a few mouthfuls, Gilmore said, “You weren’t joking about the taste. Does anyone enjoy that?”

Vex shook her head, “Nobody. Even Grog goes out of his way to not take it. It is very effective, though, so at least Keyleth isn’t just messing with us.”

The light, casual conversation carried on for a little while, just people relaxing together, until Allura interrupted the conversation by asking, “May I speak to you now, Captain?”

Pike felt all the tension that had left her over the past few hours all come rushing back, straightening her spine and stiffening her shoulders, but she tried to keep all of that out of her voice as she replied, “Of course, Arcanist. Would you like to start?”

Allura stood up, instantly commanding the attention of the room, and said clearly, “You weren’t chosen by accident or randomly. We needed people like you. We still do.”

“People like us,” Pike echoed, “You mean petty criminals? Because that’s all we are. I don’t know why you think any of us are anything special, but I can assure you we’re not.”

“I don’t know that piracy, smuggling and theft could be called ‘petty’ crimes,” Allura responded instantly, “However, even beyond that, a lot of resources were put into this selection. You were chosen because of _who_ you all are.”

Those choice of words immediately had Pike on guard, but she had to know exactly what it was that Allura thought she knew about them, “Tell me then, Arcanist, who _are_ we?”

Pike expected Allura to demur, or to say maybe one or two sentences of half-researched bullshit, but certainly wasn’t expecting what happened next. Allura took a deep breath and pointed at Pike, saying, “Your name is Pike Trickfoot. You come from a family of deep gnomes with rather unsavoury characters, but you were taken from them to be raised by your grandfather in Westruun, which how you became a cleric of Sarenrae, a goddess known to be very selective about who she grants her power to, and yet she has granted it to you.”

Allura’s finger moved, pointing to Grog, “You travel with a goliath named Grog Strongjaw from the Herd of Storms, one of the largest goliath herds in Tal’dorei, who, by birthright, is second in line to command it in its entirety, if he hadn’t been exiled for showing a bit of kindness and mercy.”

Allura’s attention moved again, this time to the twins, “Your pilots are Vax’ildan and Vex’ahlia Vessar,” Pike saw both the twins go absolutely still, hands clasped together over the table, both pairs of eyes fixed on Allura and giving her the worst death glares Pike had ever seen, “the children of the Syngorn ambassador to Emon, Syldor Vessar, and a human woman in Byroden, who died when Byroden was destroyed by Thordak fifteen years ago - the same dragon that now sits in Emon. Both have made a name for themselves, in their own ways.”

“And finally,” Allura said, her finger now pointing at Keyleth, who had shrunk in on herself, “Your medic, as she calls herself, is an _Ashari druid_. The Ashari have been known to Emon for some time now, and it is known that they only leave their homes and travel in this way if they are questing for the right to call themselves the leader of their tribe. So, not only is she an Ashari druid, she is quite likely the child of the current leader.”

Allura finally lowered her arm and looked back at Pike, who could feel that her mouth was a little open, but was powerless to do anything about it, and Allura finished simply, “None of you are normal people. You never have been, and we need you.”

She was met with silence for a minute, before Vax scraped his chair back, loud in the silence of the room. He didn’t say anything, just met Allura’s eyes for a few seconds, before walking out of the room, back straight and fists clenched. Not two seconds later, Vex followed him. Her head was down and her hands were clasped together, her body language all together a lot less defiant than her brother’s. 

Gilmore slowly stood and said quietly, “Some of what you’ve just said are things that Vax has never told me in four years of knowing him. If you were looking to inspire allies, I’m going to suggest that you may have failed. I’ll talk to you later, Allura.”

Gilmore left the room, in the most sombre way Pike had ever seen him move. Allura looked around the room, at Keyleth still tucked in on herself, long red hair deliberately obscuring her face, at Grog, face confused and angry but ready to do something about the tension in the room, and finally, at Pike, who was so angry she wasn’t entirely sure she was still breathing.

Pike and Allura looked at each other in silence for not more than a minute, before Pike said, “We’re expecting to get to Vasselheim in five days. After that, you are no longer welcome on this ship.”

The next five days were definitely some of the most awkward days Pike had ever spent aboard the _Little Sunbird_. Allura, sensing that she had managed to quite effectively anger ninety percent of the crew, kept mostly to her quarters, or with the Tal’dorei family. There had been a small spate of practical jokes played on her, but Pike had stopped that in its tracks fairly quickly.

She understood the impulse that drove Vax to commit these little petty acts of annoyance against the people he perceived as wronging him, and also completely understood the compulsion that Vex had to aid him, but the last thing she needed was the tension on the ship to rack up higher and higher because the twins wouldn’t leave someone who was still a very important person alone.

Pike was also immensely grateful that the full weight of Emon resources hadn’t been thrown behind finding out who Percy and Cass really were, that apparently they had focused on ‘real’ members of the crew, as opposed to _all_ members. The admittedly flimsy cover was so far working, with Grog getting around the difficulty of remembering cover names by ceasing to call Percy and Cass by names at all. It wasn’t perfect, but so far there hadn’t been any major slip ups; in fact, more than once, Pike had called Percy ‘Freddie’ whilst they were in private. She had the feeling the name might stick. It did seem to suit him.

Pike was sitting in the eating area, absently chewing on a piece of dried meat, and half-listening to Vex and Jarett, who were talking and laughing together, Vex’s legs thrown over Jarett’s lap with his hands resting on her knees. Ever since Jarett had come onboard, more times than not, he had been found in the company of Vex, and the flirting hadn’t stopped since day one. It would be sweet except that Pike was almost certain that sweet was definitely not what Vex was interested in.

As Pike sat there, amusing herself quietly, Percy came in and said, “Captain, Vax said to say that we’re coming up to Vasselheim now. In about half an hour, we’ll be on solid land again.”

Pike nodded, “Thanks Freddie. Normal preparations apply, okay?”

Percy nodded, and turned to leave again. Pike stood up and stretched, before glancing over at Vex and Jarett and saying, “Vex, go and help your brother. Jarett, if you could go and tell your friends to get packed up and ready to go. We’ll help you out with accommodation, if you need it.”

Jarett stood and made a little bow in Pike’s direction, “My friends and I are very used to starting again in a new city. We will be fine, thank you, Captain.”

Pike smiled, before making her way towards Allura’s room and knocking gently on the door, “Arcanist? Are you there?”

The door slid open and Allura stood there, looking almost nervous and excited at the same time. She was also the most immaculately dressed she had ever been on the ship, and adding all those things together in her head, Pike wasn’t at all surprised when the first thing out of Allura’s mouth was, “We’re nearing Vasselheim, aren’t we?”

“Not more than half an hour out,” Pike confirmed, “You must have visited Vasselheim often to be able to recognise it so easily.”

“Not often,” Allura replied, “But each time has certainly been a...memorable occasion. This time is turning out to be no different.”

There was a beat of silence, before Pike said, “I just wanted to check that your friend had received your message, and that there was somewhere ready for the royal family to stay. I somehow suspect they wouldn’t be comfortable in the first tavern you come across.”

Allura laughed, “I did have to make that point to Kima, but I have been assured that there have been appropriate arrangements made to house Lady Tal’dorei and her children. Kima will meet us at the docks, and we’ll discuss how to move from there. Are you sure…?”

Pike tilted her head, her mouth a firm, straight line, before she answered, “Don’t, Allura. I don’t doubt that you did what you did for good reasons, and I’m not angry for myself; my history is no secret, nor does it particularly pain me. But there are members of my crew for which both of those are true, and for them, what you did wasn’t okay. They’re my _family_ , Allura, and I’d do _anything_ to protect them.”

Allura bowed her head, “I understand.”

****

As they came in to land at Vasselheim, most everyone was up on deck, even though the air was freezing, and Pike positioned herself in front of the gangplank, flashing back to a year ago when she stood in the exact same position and trusted that nobody would have the guts to bowl her over. As the gangplank touched down, scraping along the stones, Pike opened her mouth to shout to get everyone’s attention, but was immediately and unexpectedly interrupted by another voice, screaming as loud as it could.

“ _ **Allie!**_ ”

Allura rushed over to the side of the ship and waved frantically, calling back, “Kima! _Kima!_ ”

Then Pike felt herself being pushed roughly to one side as a heavily armoured halfling shouldered past her and ran at Allura, who, far from being wary about being essentially charged by a substantial weight, simply dropped to her knees and opened her arms. The halfling - who had to be Kima - flung herself forward and bowled them both over, arms tight around Allura’s neck. The two women lay on the deck of the ship for a few moments, completely intertwined, and whilst that was going on, Pike saw Jarett and his companions take their leave, Jarett simply raising a hand in farewell, as well as quirking an eyebrow at Allura’s behaviour, so far from the controlled, reserved woman they had all come to know on the _Little Sunbird_.

When the two of them finally picked themselves up off the floor, Pike finally got a good look at Kima, and found herself internally groaning. She was wearing the armour of a paladin, and more than that, a paladin of Bahamut. The follower of a deity so obsessed with law and order and goodness was not going to take well to a bunch of ragtag criminals, moreover a bunch of criminals who were refusing to help.

Allura, who had gone a little pink, clearly becoming aware of how different her behaviour had just been, said, “This is Lady Kima of Vord, my long time friend and old travelling companion, who now lives and trains here in Vasselheim, at the temple to Bahamut.”

Kima bowed briefly in Lady Tal’dorei’s direction before looking over at the crew, all standing together, and saying, “Thank you for getting Allura here. When we got word that dragons had attacked Emon… it was a great relief knowing that Allura was safe and on her way here, and with the royal family, no less.”

Pike nodded, “You’re welcome, Lady Kima.”

“Well, if you’ll all follow me,” Kima began, “I know that High Bearer Vord wanted to talk with the crew and we’ll get you and your family settled, my lady.”

“All of the crew?” Pike asked, “Because we normally leave someone behind to guard the ship.”

Kima paused, before saying, “I can get some Platinum Knights if you want…?”

“No!” At least three members yelled simultaneously, before Pike took a deep breath and said, “Vex, if you could tell Trinket to stay here and eat anyone who tries to come on board, that would be great.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Vex grinned, and crouched down to murmur into Trinket’s ear. As she did so, Gilmore spoke up, saying, “I’m not technically crew, I could stay here…?”

“You’re basically an in-law at this point,” Pike replied, “That makes you one of us. Anyway, I imagine people are going to want an eyewitness account.”

Gilmore shrugged and grinned, “Far be it from me to insist upon being left behind.”

As they began to move off, through Vasselheim, with Kima and Allura leading the way, Pike took in her surroundings. Even though they had several lucrative contacts here in Vasselheim, and Pike was seriously considering looking up Kashaw and Zahra just to see if there was any job going that they could use to get back to normality, it wasn’t the sort of city you wanted to spend a lot of time in if you had the option. It was too cold, too dour. 

As they walked, Pike overheard Allura say to Kima, “Now we know what your visions of evil were about, at least.”

“No,” Kima disagreed, “It wasn’t the dragons. I mean, they _are_ evil, but that’s not what Bahamut was trying to warn me about. The visions have become clearly recently, and we’ve been able to narrow down the location. It’s a town called Whitestone. I’m setting out for there as soon as everything’s been settled here.”

Pike felt Percy go stiff next to her, and didn’t dare look around to see if Cassandra had overheard. So, whatever was going on in Whitestone was apparently so evil that a god was sending visions of it to his faithful. Between that and the dragons, Pike had a feeling that the world was going to be a much more dangerous place for a while longer yet.

When they reached the Platinum Sanctuary, the crew of the _Little Sunbird_ were asked to wait outside, whilst Kima and Allura took the Tal’doreis in for a meeting with High Bearer Vord and a few other high ranking members of Vasselheim society. The political ramifications of harbouring a foreign nation’s royal family, even if it was because they were fleeing from dragons, were inevitable, but also beyond their scope to deal with, and so Pike was quite grateful to not be included in the discussion. 

It also gave them time to discuss the little bomb that had unintentionally been dropped on two of their crew. Cassandra had also overheard, and had kept it together long enough to repeat it to Keyleth and Grog before apparently shutting down and having to be half-supported, half-carried by Grog. Vex and Vax had both heard Kima themselves, and Pike wasn’t going to ask how they had managed that despite being at the back of the procession. They had told Scanlan, and now all of them were looking at both of the de Rolos with what Pike imagined was the same worried expression.

Percy had his arms around his sister, but the expression on his face was one of fierce determination, and Pike knew that whatever he was about to say was going to be something nominally crazy. It was the same expression he got on his face every time they found another shipment of guns, luckily something that had only happened twice since the first time. It was the same expression Percy got every time he thought about what had led him here.

Which is why Pike was not massively surprised when he said, “I have to go with Lady Kima. If she’s going to investigate Whitestone, to try to _help_ Whitestone, I owe it to a lot of people to go back.”

Pike closed her eyes, and said nothing, but Keyleth, surprisingly, was the first one to say, “Percy… _who_ do you owe it to? Because the Briarwoods been hunting you for a year now, and you want to go back into _their_ territory? Don’t you think that’s… just a bit _too_ dangerous?”

“That’s why I want Cass to stay here,” Percy replied, “I don’t want her anywhere near them.”

“And I guess you want her to stay with us, right?” Vex asked, her tone frustrated, “Because you don’t want our help either.”

“I…,” Percy started, before cutting himself off with a noise of frustration. Vex nodded and said quietly, “That’s what I thought.”

“How are you going to persuade Lady Kima to take you with her?” Pike asked, and Percy turned to look at her, a harrowed expression on his face.

“I thought simply telling her who I was would be enough.”

“You mean, the thing we’ve been going out of our way to hide for a year!” Vax replied, not quite shouting, but getting up there, “You’re still a wanted criminal, Percy, or had you forgotten?”

Percy opened his mouth, and Pike suspected that this would have been an actual yell, except at that very moment, Kima stepped out of the doors and said, “High Bearer Vord would like to see you now… am I interrupting something?”

“No,” Pike said very quickly, and after a few seconds, Kima just shrugged and gestured for them to follow her in. The chamber they were led into was very grand, and standing at the other end, apparently waiting for them, was High Bearer Vord, an older looking elf, along with Allura, standing off to one side. There was no sign of the Tal’doreis and that was the first thing that Pike asked.

High Bearer Vord smiled, “They are quite safe. Some of my knights are escorting them to their accommodation at this very moment. They owe you their lives.”

Pike shook her head, “They owe _Gilmore_ their lives. Nothing to do with us.”

High Bearer Vord frowned, but nodded his agreement, “I suppose so. Arcanist Vysoren tells me, however, that you were instrumental in rescuing several other people from Emon during the chaos, but have turned down her job offer, in which you could save many more lives.”

“Well, Allura thinks what she’s told you is true,” Pike started, and despite the craziness of what she was about to say, she did love the look of shock on everyone’s faces as she said, “But it’s not. Here’s what my crew and I are proposing. We’ll help with whatever plan you come up with to defeat the dragons, but we will do it _after_ Whitestone is liberated from the Briarwoods and their ilk.”

“Whitestone?” High Bearer Vord asked, his face puzzled, and Kima echoed him, asking, “Whitestone? What do you lot care about Whitestone? How do you even know that name?”

Pike smiled, and without looking, gestured for Percy to step forward. She felt him approach, footfalls firm and steady, and he stopped next to her, every inch of him exuding nobility as he said, “My name is Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, and Whitestone is mine, by right of birth and blood. And I would see it freed from whatever malevolent influence it is under.”


End file.
